Who was Ernst Bachrich? A pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, a founding member of his legendary Society for Private Musical Performances, perhaps the most talented pianist – alongside Eduard Steuermann – of the Second Viennese School, successful conductor, and outstanding composer. All this was not enough to preserve his artistic legacy beyond the annihilation of his physical existence in July 1942 in the Nazi concentration camp Majdanek. In years of research, Dr. Matthew Vest of the University of California in Los Angeles collected the traces of Bachrich's life and work. Not only is it thanks to his efforts that we today have an approximate idea of Bachrich's career and his multifaceted activities; Vest also found the editions of Bachrich's works, the basis of the present premiere recordings, some of which existed only as unique copies in the estates of composers and musicians in Israel, Austria, and Switzerland, and edited them anew, as in the case of the Psalm op.10, no.1, and the Sonnenhymne. We also owe him a debt of gratitude for the biographical sketch on the following pages. Our thanks also goes to Dr. Florence Millet, professor of piano and head of the piano department at the Cologne College of Music and Dance, who is convinced that the occupation with the twentieth-century composers who were victims of ideological and racial persecution should have a place in the curriculum of today's music students and who supported this recording together with her colleagues from the Cologne College of Music within the framework of the EchoSpore project; we are greatly indebted to program directors Stefan Lang and Volker Michael from Deutschlandfunk Kultur, who have been associated with the work of eda records for many years as co-producers; and, last but not least, to the performers on this recording – Lola Rubio, Anna Christin Sayn, and Alexander Breitenbach – who dived with great passion and empathy into the preparation of a stylistically highly complex repertoire for which no reference recordings are available.

A key to understanding Bachrich's works lies, on the one hand, in his double talent as composer and pianist. More than in other composers of the Second Viennese School, we recognize – particularly in his piano compositions – the desire to produce a synthesis of the specific pianistic composing of diverse European provenance of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Debussy's "oceanic" tonal exhilaration in the Prelude, Scriabin's "blazing" ecstasy combined with Schoenberg's "expressionistic" aphorisms in the first, and late Liszt's "lugubrious" magical atmosphere in the second of the Three Portraits op.6. A further key is his profound admiration for Berg, which finds expression in the dedication of the Frühe Verse (Early Verses) that he offered to "the composer of the Frühe Lieder (Early Songs)" on his fiftieth birthday, in the symbolic "setting", as op.1, of his – likewise single-movement – Piano Sonata and in the choice of the poetry he set to music. Bachrich belonged to the avant-garde of his epoch, although he was not a revolutionary, but rather a sensitive mediator and continuer. The lack of distinctive large-scale works (concerto and symphonic repertoire, operas, oratorios, which possibly would have been written had things not ended in the catastrophe) may be another reason for his disappearance into the marginal notes of twentieth-century musical history. The quality of his works speaks for itself. May this recording help them find their way back into the musical life out of which they were driven by barbaric evil.

Frank Harders-Wuthenow

Translation: Howard Weiner 

Ernst Bachrich, life and work: a search for traces

Ernst Bachrich was born in Vienna on May 30, 1892 to Isador Bachrich and Julie (Eisler) Bachrich. He was enrolled in the Law Faculty at the University of Vienna from 1911 to 1915, but received his doctorate in law from an unknown institution. Music increasingly took a more prominent role in his life, however, and by 1914 the Neue Freie Presse had noted several chamber performances by him. Through the mid-teens he continued to study music, first with Carl Prohaska and Carl Lafite in 1916–1917, and with Arnold Schoenberg from June 1916. In 1918 and 1919, he participated in Schoenberg's composition seminar and he was instrumental in the Society for Private Musical Performance. He was in attendance in June 1918 when Schoenberg worked out the plan for the Society. Bachrich continued to have instrumental roles in the society as he served as the secretary and as one of the most utilized preparers and pianists.

Bachrich served in his first professional music post as the Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper, where he worked with conductors Fritz Stiedry and Felix Weingartner from 1920 to 1925. He was also a guest conductor at the Hakoah Orchestra (1920–1925) as well as in Munich and Paris (1924–1925). In 1921 Bachrich premiered Schoenberg's Book of the Hanging Gardens with Erika Wagner, accompanied Karl Neumann in songs by Korngold und Grädener, and was considered for a position as a principal solo rehearsal pianist and choral director at the Metropolitan Opera House, a position that ultimately went un-filled. A review in Arbeiter Zeitung of the 30 January 1921 performance with Neumann describes Bachrich as "immensely subtle" and a "consummate pianistic companion". In 1923 he helped play Berg's Wozzeck for Erich Kleiber at Emil Hertzka's request, which led to its first production. The next year, Bachrich was both a featured composer in and an executive of the festival organized by the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, Sektion Oesterreich.

The Piano Sonata op.1, composed in 1917, was published by Doblinger in 1933. This early work, a sonata in one movement, demonstrated his ability to develop musical themes and harmonies and his skill with counterpoint and an extended harmonic language. Bachrich's Violin Sonata op.2, was composed in 1925 or earlier and published by Doblinger in 1931. A performance at a Grevesmühl-Quartett concert in 1932 was reviewed by Carl (Karl) Heinzen in the April 1932 edition of Die Musik. Heinzen noted that it was a "very fine piece, without any concession, which requires two virtuosos to be performed, both musically and technically". It was also performed in Czechoslovakia by Markéta Kubínová and Jan Kaláb on 10 April 1935.

In 1925, Drei Gesänge op.3, was published by Doblinger, establishing a relationship that would last until 1933. Ružena Herlinger performed the songs on 10 October 1925, and a review in Arbeiter Zeitung on 27 October 1925, called him "clever" and deemed the songs a "beautiful success". Bestimmung was composed in 1920 and sets a text by German nonsense poet Christian Morgenstern, who also attracted composers Eisler and Hindemith. Schlummernd in schwellendem Grün, with poetry by Christian Friedrich Hebbel was written in 1917. This text was also set by Walter Braunfels in 1905 and Hebbel poetry was utilized by Berg in his op.2 in 1910.  Winter (1925) has poetry by Theodor Däubler and was dedicated to Ružena Herlinger, who was also the dedicatee of Berg's Der Wein five years later.  Adorno engaged with Däubler theoretically and musically with his Drei Gedichte von Theodor Däubler (1923–45). A copy of Drei Gesänge was preserved by the National Library of Israel, in the collection of prominent music critic Adolf Weißmann. 

In February 1926, Berg corresponded with Zemlinsky about a performance of Bachrich's Duo für Violine and Violoncello by members of the Sedlak-Winkler Quartet Portraits: Drei Klavierstücke, op.6, were composed in 1927 and published by Doblinger in 1930. The only extant copy of this work survived in the Anton Webern Collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung. The third movement, labeled Improvisation über eine amerikanische Volkweise was, in fact, based on Steven Foster's Old Folks at Home or Swanee River, a blackface minstrel theater song. Bachrich's arrangement of the song demonstrated his ability to skillfully reimagine existing works by other composers.

In 1928 Bachrich became the Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Duesseldorf and introduced Berg to British audiences by performing his op.1 on the BBC Radio. By 1931, Bachrich was both on the artistic board and Kapellmeister of the Stadtheater in Duisburg. Many performances by Bachrich and of his music are noted in the press from 1928 to 1933. While most were in Austria, Germany and England, an April 1930 concert in Florence by pianist Helène Herschel included his work. Prelude, which was dedicated to Herschel, was composed in 1929, engraved in Italy (likely because of Herschel), and published by Doblinger in 1930. In July of 1930, his Duo was performed by members of the Berliner Streichquartett alongside works by Eisler and Honegger.

Amid rising anti-Semitism, Bachrich left his posts in Germany in 1932. Back in Vienna his arrangement of Wiener Blut for violin and piano was performed at a war commemoration concert in August 1934, reportedly triggering great applause. Later that year his lost work Der Letzte Appell (for male chorus) was performed in September; this work was most likely political, as he dedicated it to the "Austrian Homeland Security" (Mitgliedern des österreichischen Heimatschutzes und seinem Führer Herrn Vizekanzler Fürst Starhemberg gewidmet). On 24 December 1934, the Sarabande from his Elegie für Violoncello und Streichorchester was performed and broadcast on the radio by the Frauensymphonieorchester in Vienna. Julius Lehnert conducted and Luitgart Wimmer played the solo cello. Bachrich provided accompaniment for Charles Ives songs (including several premieres) in a February 1935 concert organized by Paul Pisk. His Elegie was performed for a second time on the radio on 2 May 1935, in a lunchtime concert by the Radio Orchestra of Vienna, conducted by Josef Holzer and with Theo Salzmann performing the cello solo. In 1936 he joined Marcel Rubin and Friedrich Wildgans in organizing the "Musik der Gegenwart" concerts, replacing Paul Pisk.

Osterblüte and Psalm op.10, were composed between 1933 and 1934. On 10 June 1936, the songs were performed and broadcast by Hanna Schwarz and Paul Pisk in Vienna, and on 14 June 1937, his song Osterblüte was performed on the Radio in Linz by Clarisse Stukart. The poem for Psalm was written by Emil Arnold-Holm, the pen-name for a still unidentified Jewish Viennese poet. Arnold-Holm may have been Arnold Ascher, who was murdered in a Gestapo prison in 1938. The poem was published in Arnold-Holm's first volume of poetry, Musik der Dinge, in 1932. Like Portraits, the only copy of Psalm survives in the Anton Webern Collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung. Osterblüte was written by Greta Bauer-Schwind, a poet from Brno, and published in her collection Licht und Erde in 1936. The only surviving copy of the score was preserved by the National Library of Israel. The score was owned by singer Stella Falticzek and bears her signature on the cover.

Bachrich's Sonnenhymne op.11, was also written between 1933 and 34. The lyrics were taken from a 1912 poem by Hans Carossa. By 1933 Carossa was well known, but this poem was not among his best-known works. It is an expressive, allegorical text set to lyric music. This work is heavily inflected with chromaticism and quartal harmony. L'Angelus was composed between 1933 and 37. A "bretonische Volksweise", Bachrich likely arranged the version found in Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray's Trente Mélodies Populaires de Basse-Bretagne, which was first published in 1885. This subtle song, while tonal, uses quartal harmony and modal borrowings to add musical interest and tension to the traditional melody. Like Osterblüte, the only extant copies of the self-published Sonnenhymne and L'Angelus were preserved by the National Library of Israel and were owned by Stella Falticzek.

Die Frühen Verse op.15, was a deceptively simple monodrama that Bachrich dedicated to Berg for his 50th birthday in 1935. The only extant copy was preserved in the Berg estate papers at the Austrian National Library. The vocal part is published alone as a lithograph and the full score is in manuscript. Bachrich set poetry by Emil Arnold Holm from the same volume as Psalm. The speaker is notated without note heads on the center line of a five-line staff without a clef. This style of Sprechstimme notation is appropriately more like the use in Berg's Wozzeck than Schoenberg's Pierrot. While his late style was more reserved, Bachrich continued to interact with the Second Viennese School, both socially and musically, during a time when the members were under governmental attack and suppression.

The final known public performance of his work was on 18 October 1937 when his Variationen uber ein Thema von Beethoven were performed at the Wiener Konzerthaus. By 1938, he was musical director at the Volkshochschule Wien. In the 25 January 1938 review of Carmen in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, the reviewer wrote: "As always, Ernst Bachrich was amazing at the piano. His hands make beautiful work at the keyboard, he holds the performance tightly together with the soloists and chorus, and his direction leaves nothing to be desired."

In early 1938 Bachrich directed a performance of The Barber of Seville that was scheduled to open 12 March, but it was most likely canceled due to the German invasion and annexation of Austria that day. After the "Anschluss", Bachrich was blacklisted. In 1938 his name was included in both the Lexikon der Juden in der Musik and Judentum und Musik. In 1939, his name was crossed out with a red line in the Directory of the Austrian Society of Authors, Composers, and Music Publishers (Staatlich genehmigte Gesellschaft der Autoren, Komponisten und Musikverleger)¹ and in 1940 he was listed in the "Ausschlüsse aus der Reichsmusikkammer".

Yet, there is evidence that Bachrich resisted. In late 1938, Variationen uber ein Thema von Beethoven was engraved and published by Goll, after which he notified Joseph Marx of its publication in a letter. The following year he self-published Sonate fur Violoncello und Klavier, which prominently included the year of publication and his Jewish district in Vienna on the cover. On his official, required registry of assets in 1938, he mentioned the copyrights to his compositions banned in Germany and declined to offer a value. He actively resisted the ban on his music as he sought publication and continued to privately and publically promote his work.

On 15 May 1942, Ernst Bachrich was deported from Vienna to the Izbica ghetto located in German-occupied Poland. He was murdered on 11 July 1942 in the Lublin concentration camp. After his death, his work was mostly forgotten, save references to high-profile performances and premieres, such as Schoenberg and Ives. Because of his endeavors to publish and disseminate his work, it was preserved. It is only because of his effort that his history can be reconstructed and his place among interwar musicians in Central Europe be explored.

Matthew Vest